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Worried Tory MPs have urged Rishi Sunak to offer Nigel Farage a deal to make him the UK’s ambassador to the US or hand him a peerage in return for not standing for Reform at the election.
In a sign of the deepening desperation over the threat from Reform, several Conservative MPs have called on the Prime Minister to secure a pact with the former Ukip leader in an attempt to improve their hopes of re-election.
Reform has instantly rejected the proposal, banding it the latest attempt by “terrified Tories to save their rotten hides”.
It comes as new polling showed further gains for the right-wing party, with YouGov giving Reform a vote share of 16 per cent, the highest it has polled to date and just five points behind the Tories.
Perhaps of even deeper concern to the Conservatives is the same poll showing Reform ahead of the Tories among northern voters, with 21 per cent opting for Reform as opposed to just 18 per cent for the Conservatives. The parties are level pegging among voters in the Midlands.
The rise of Reform has seriously spooked Tory MPs, particularly those representing “Red Wall” seats, and has prompted some to call on Sunak to strike an unlikely deal with Farage to ensure he does not stand in the forthcoming election, which would give a major boost to Reform’s prospects if the party’s President did stand.
A Red Wall Tory told i: “Rishi should do a deal with him to make him ambassador to the US in return for him agreeing not to stand for Reform.
“He already has a great relationship with Donald Trump, he would make an excellent interlocutor between the two countries. Bung him a peerage and make him ambassador is what I would do.”
Another Conservative frontbencher suggested Farage should be handed a seat in the House of Lords in return for Reform standing down all candidates at the election, just as the Brexit Party did in 2019.
“I think it would be easier to do a deal saying we will make you a Conservative Peer,” the MP said.
The idea of making Farage the UK’s ambassador to the US was warmly welcomed by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, although he cast doubts on the viability of such a plan.
“Nigel would be an excellent ambassador in the event of Trump being re-elected in November,” Sir Jacob said, before adding: “I think it requires both Trump and the Tories to win and our elections may well coincide so I don’t think it would arise.”
It comes as Tory pollster Lord Hayward suggested that support for Reform could enjoy a further bounce off the back of the European elections in June, when right-wing parties are expected to make substantial gains.
“There is a probability that the Euro elections in June will result in a marked swing to right-wing parties in countries from Portugal to Sweden,” the Tory peer said. “This will almost inevitably generate greater interest in Reform in the UK.”
Any suggestion of a pact was given short shrift by Farage, who said the Tories had blown any chance of bringing him onside.
“I am not for sale,” he said. “If the Conservative Party were sincere they would have sent me to the USA in 2017.”
According to some Conservatives, the opportunity to extend an olive branch to Mr Farage was lost when Boris Johnson came to power in 2019.
A Tory ex-Cabinet minister suggested there was now no chance of doing a deal due to a grudge that developed after Mr Johnson failed to phone Farage to thank him for standing the Brexit Party aside in the 2019 general election.
“They were really pissed off about that,” the MP said. “That’s partly why they won’t do a deal this time”
A Reform spokesman said the Conservatives were “mad” if they believed the snub was what motivated Mr Farage, who has vowed to make the Tories “extinct” at the forthcoming election.
“What they are suggesting is a political bribe,” the spokesman said. “The Tories have been offering him those since about the year 2000, it didn’t work then, why would they think it might work now?
“It might be sensible to offer him a peerage, or would have been in 2016, but for his achievements, not as a down-payment for the betrayal of everything he stands for.
He added: “It might be sensible to offer him the ambassador’s job, because he is the only person in UK politics with a good relationship with Donald Trump, but not because some terrified Tories think it might save their rotten hides.”
